American Airlines announced that it recently deployed more than 8,000 iPads and is now using Apple’s touchscreen tablet as an electronic flight bag in the cockpit of its entire fleet of airplanes. The completion of the company’s iPad rollout has allowed the company to discontinue paper revisions to its terminal charts. American Airlines is now the first major commercial airline company to fully utilize tablets in all cockpits during all phases of flight.

Overall, more than 8,000 iPads have been issued to active pilots and trainers. This has allowed American Airlines to eliminate roughly 24 million pages of paper documents. The company chose the iPad to serve as its official electronic flight bag for pilots. The switch eliminates the need to carry a 35-pound kitbag from all of the company’s planes.
As of right now it is projected that the use of the iPad as an electronic flight bag will help the company save roughly 400,000 gallons of gas or roughly $1.2 million worth of fuel every year. According to David Campbell, vice president of Safety and Operations Performance at American Airlines:

Our electronic flight bag program has a significant positive environmental and cost-savings impact.

The company has approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to use the iPad on all of its current fleet types including the Boeing 777, 767, 757, 737, and MD-80. Pilots current utilize the Jeppesen Mobile Terminal Chart application, which has been approved for gate-to-gate use throughout all phases of flight. According to American’s Vice President – Airline Operations Technology, Patrick O’Keeffe:

Our focus on technological improvement throughout our operation has never been stronger as we continue to build the new American. As the first major commercial airline to successfully complete the Electronic Flight Bag transition across its fleet, we are proud to count this among our other successful programs that provide the tools our people need to perform their duties safely and efficiently.

We’ll have to wait to see if other airlines follow suit and take up the same idea if not a similar one.